Why Do My Soundcards Keep Busting

  • Thread starter Thread starter utsman
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utsman

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Hey Cubasers,

I seem to keep killing the line in jacks on my soundcards. I have only unplugged and plugged back in about 5 times on my current soundcard and I think the jack is cactus. It plays back audio fine but the guitar signal is becoming crackly and buzzy. Last time this happen i relaced the card and it was fixed. Is it definetely the jack or somethin else. Also can you kill a soundcard by turning the preamp up too high.

Thanks,

The Novice UTSMAN
 
uts. you have to understand a sound card is a sensitive piece of electronics.
particularly cheap sound cards are susceptible to this. i suspect you werre repatching while the sound card was fired up and the pc fired up.
the proper practice would be a mixer with its outs permanently connected to the sound card, and all plugging/unplugging be done at the front end of the mixer, NOT THE SOUND CARD. this way with faders on the outs down on the mixer - the mixer acts as a buffer. in addition , if you must plug/unplug to a sound card its wise to do this with the pc off so no possibility of surges / transients electronically can occur. randomly pulling a chord out of a sound card fired up could cause problems - particularly on cheap ones that might not have protection devices built into their inputs.peace.
 
Hey thanks Manning,
You are right, it is a cheap card, and I have switched from line in to mic in with the pc running. Oh well, time to upgrade. Now I know I won't let it happen again.

UTS
 
you wouldnt, by chance, be using a 1/4 cable to a 1/8 adapter in the line in slot would ya? the weight of the plug and the adapter pulls on the jack and ruins your connection
 
If i get a Delta 1010LT, will i break it if i keep changing leads around or is it proteted?
 
jamtheguitarman said:
If i get a Delta 1010LT, will i break it if i keep changing leads around or is it proteted?
Click to expand...

The LT has a pig tail coming from the card for all of the inputs/outputs. 2 actually. One for the digital, one for the analog.

However, I would run from the LT to a patchbay, and do your connections from there. Replacing a $40 patchbay is cheaper than a $200 Delta card.
 
The LT has a pig tail coming from the card for all of the inputs/outputs. 2 actually. One for the digital, one for the analog.

However, I would run from the LT to a patchbay, and do your connections from there. Replacing a $40 patchbay is cheaper than a $200 Delta card.
Click to expand...

Thanks, few questions though.

What is a pig tail exactly?

I saw a few behringer patchbay's but what exactley are they and how do they work?

I am pretty new to all this incase you hadn't gessed.
 
distortedrumble said:
you wouldnt, by chance, be using a 1/4 cable to a 1/8 adapter in the line in slot would ya? the weight of the plug and the adapter pulls on the jack and ruins your connection
Click to expand...


Bingo,

I think this is right, as the connection died last time and I used the same setup. I reinstalled the sound card driver and that helped a bit. Now the guitar sounds clear when you play but if I record it has a loud hiss behind it. It's such a pain fighting with cheap gear, when you know if you had the cash this stuff would take about 1/10th as long, and sound 10 times better.
 
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